The Caucus for Democratic Governance (CDG-GH) has slammed President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for allegedly blowing taxpayers money on expensive banquettes for members of his government and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

CDG-GH in a statement signed by its Chief Convener, Dr. E.K Hayford accused the President of losing focus on the management of the economy and wasting time and money on organising kenkey party for his political party.

“The Caucus for Democratic Governance (CDG-GH) has observed recently, unfortunate advert by NPP under Akufo Addo inviting party bootlickers to a kenkey party. This was followed up with a banquette at the plush Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City,” the group alleged.

According to caucus, the excessive spending of state money on unnecessary events should be blamed for the current economic woes affecting the stability of the Ghana Cedis and ghastly road crashes recorded in recent times.

“The insensitive and un-Ghanaian nature of this double celebration is the fact that there was a horrendous road accident near Kintampo in which over 70 of our fellow Ghanaians perished. With total disrespect to the sensibilities of the affected families coupled with public resentment, the ruling Kyebi clan went ahead to fete themselves. This is total absurdity. How wicked could a president be beyond this when he failed to cancel this unnecessary waste of public funds. This is alleged to cost the Ghanaian taxpayer a whopping 1.5 million Ghana Cedis,” CDG-GH claims.

The CDG-GH further alleged that President Akufo-Addo was exposed when a viral video in which he was drunk surfaced on the internet after he “escape” from criticisms in Ghana over his mismanagement of the country’s resources for his birthday party abroad.

“As a result of the public bashing for his insensitivity, the president jetted off for a birthday bash abroad to escape the embarrassment. This didn’t help him as he was caught on camera allegedly tipsy. The video went viral,” parts of the statement read.

Read the statement below

CAUCUS FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE-GHANA*

Press release

04. 2019

CELEBRATING MEDIOCRITY – In the case of a Warlord

The Caucus for Democratic Governance (CDG-GH) has observed recently, unfortunate advert by NPP under Akufo Addo inviting party bootlickers to a kenkey party. This was followed up with a banquette at the plush Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City. The purpose for this wanton, profligate and above all arrogant dissipation of the public purse is the marginal appreciation of the cedis from 5.5 to 5.3 in 1 dollar terms. As a result of the public bashing for his insensitivity, the president jetted off for a birthday bash abroad to escape the embarrassment. This didn’t help him as he was caught on camera allegedly tipsy. The video went viral.

The insensitive and un-Ghanaian nature of this double celebration is the fact that there was a horrendous road accident near Kintampo in which over 70 of our fellow Ghanaians perished. With total disrespect to the sensibilities of the affected families coupled with public resentment, the ruling Kyebi clan went ahead to fete themselves. This is total absurdity. How wicked could a president be beyond this when he failed to cancel this unnecessary waste of public funds. This is alleged to cost the Ghanaian taxpayer a whopping 1.5 million Ghana Cedis. The rapid devaluation of the Ghana cedis has been created by Akufo Addo himself so it is ridiculous to celebrate a marginal appreciation of the same. You all recall that when he outdoored his militia as a warlord on innocent civilians during the Ayawaso West Wuogon bye-election, it created panic among investors since money abhors noise. Investors got scared of the emerging terrorism and this resulted in an unprecedented capital flight, compelling investors to instantly repatriate their capital to offshore locations.

But why should we be surprised. While the public services, education, health, transport and roads, utilities and many more need critical inputs, to the extent that teacher now write exams on chalk boards for students to write, Akufo Addo finds convenience in wasteful propaganda and junketing as the globetrotting president the world ever had.

In order to control his battered image worldwide, a hurriedly town hall lecture was arranged for Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, the Vice President to talk to a rented audience. Prior to the date of April 3, 2019, the day of the town hall talk show, the prime streets of Accra were arrogantly abashed with huge glossy sign post adverts of the event. It is alleged that the said adverts cost the tax payer 2.5 billion old cedis. This is the time in this country that hospitals lack the required logistics to the extent that patients have no beds to use in hospitals and rather sleep on hospital floors. This is the moment that dumsor is rampant throughout the country to the extent that citizens of Somanya and surrounding areas had to block the highway in protest. It is alleged that police fired live bullets into the innocent protesters. You recall that Akufo Addo in his 2017 SONA mentioned that he has solved dumsor problems. But recently said that the current dumsor is to be blamed on HE John Mahama.

Indeed this country is in reverse gear. The talk show itself by Bawumia was not a departure from his usual public loose utterances. It is alleged that, the script is usually prepared for him by the kyebi ruling clan and intended to subject him to public ridicule. This is evident from the fact that, the recent town hall talk show by Bawumia has deepened the damage to the reputation of the high office of a Vice President. The data was full of inconsistencies and the related logic cannot be comprehended by Ghanaians except him and his kyebi masters. The content was as expected full of inaccuracies and controversies meant to deceive Ghanaians by playing just to the gallery.

It is time for Akufo Addo to realize that he is the president and must show leadership. He and Bawumia still act as though they are in opposition. The achievements that Bawumia intentionally projected at the town hall talk show are the controversial over priced contracts which were awarded to their family and friends. All the selected so called achievements which were touted by Bawumia to the staged excitement of the rented audience do not have any bearing on the living standards of Ghanaians. It rather worsens the dwindling condition of the citizenry. Indeed the poor standard of living of Ghanaians will continue to expose the vile propaganda of Akufo Addo.

We all recall that Akufo Addo used every foul and unfair strategies to manifest his father’s dream. Although he has been preparing himself for the whole of his life to become a president, his performance so far indicates that he is the worse president ever to rule Ghana by all standards. He has collapsed all traditional pillars of democratic structure that have been established over the years. Instead, he is systematically replacing such structures with his own conception. This is what dictators and fascists do. For example, after he was exposed at the AWW bye-election to the horror of the international community, as a result of creating a parallel militia to replace the traditional security services, he is trying very hard to distance himself from his own militia, a typical tyrannical attitude.

The suffering of the people is evident everywhere. In 2016 the average price of petrol was 12 Ghana Cedis per gallon. Today the same item is over 25 Ghana Cedis per gallon. This is not matched with any corresponding rise in income levels. Petrol is the live wire of the economy and the price level is directly related to cost of living. Obviously as the kyebi ruling clan takes the country as their direct inheritance, they assume that the rest of the citizens are their slaves. They are therefore amassing so much wealth to themselves. In the face of such suffering, the best Akufo Ado could do was to organize kenkey party for his NPP members to celebrate his mediocrity.

But we have ourselves to blame as we were all cautioned by those who knew him intimately. You recall that prior to the 2012 elections, a close friend of Akufo Addo by name Kofi Koomson, an editor of the Ghanaian Chronicle newspaper advised Ghanaians that, Akufo Addo will cause him sleepless nights if elected as president. Another friend of Nana Addo and an accomplished business magnate has warned Ghanaians never to make a deadly mistake of voting for Nana Addo to rule this country. Additionally, a founder of the NPP has openly stated he will not vote for Nana Addo for the sake of peace in this country. He warned Ghanaians not to allow political extremism to hide the reality from them. He admonished them to think first of our safety as a people. It is also a public knowledge that, a former director of National Security warned Ghanaians never to fix an albatross called Nana Addo on our necks. Further to all these warnings, a Ghanaian UN special representative in Somalia and a close confidant of Nana Addo also warned Ghanaians not to elect a leader who can’t control his own environment leading to acid baths, stabbing and show of disregard for elders in his party. Nana Addo’s dark side is even known to foreign diplomats as a former US Ambassador to Ghana warned Ghanaians never to elect a leader whose attitude and activities are dangerous to the nation’s stability. A German Chancellor also described him as over ambitious but has little control over things around him.

There are many more of such red flags raised to caution Ghanaians against the presidency of Nana Addo but he used very subtle rebranding and deceptive political tactics to hoodwink Ghanaians by using all kinds of unconventional strategies to live his father’s dream. This has resulted in unprecedented hardship on Ghanaians today.

Ghanaians should be aware that as Akufo Addo consolidates power, he will proceed to use worse methods unknown in politics to establish his own type of hegemony to perpetuate his rule in a very subtle way. He has plan A to Z towards achievement of his political agenda. It’s all for the akyim ruling clan, making all other Ghanaians as their subjects to serve them.

Obviously, NDC will not go into the next contest without consideration for the bitter lessons learnt from the 2016 elections. Victory may elude NDC if the same old strategies are deployed. The focus of NPP is on the voting day leading to result declaration time. All other tangible public efforts are diversionary and attempt to legitimize their unconventional and covert propagandist efforts. NDC need to be proactive and check-mate them. This is the only way to restore hope to Ghanaians after 2020.

Singed:

Dr. E.K Hayford

Chief convener

By: Kekeli Kuatsenu/awakenewonline.com

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